International Journal of Management, Technology And Engineering ISSN NO : 2249-7455

Experimentation and Optimization of Sugar Cane Bagasse

(SCB) Dust Reinforced Epoxy Based Composite
1
Nitin Mukesh Mathur, 2Kedar Bairwa, 3Rajkumar, 4Dr. Archana Singh
1
Assistant Professor, 2Assistant Professor, 3Assistant Professor
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
1
Poornima Group of Institutions, Jaipur, India
1
nitinmthr3@gmail.com,2bairwame@gmail.com

Abstract- In the present investigation, epoxy based Sugar cane bagasse dust reinforced green composite is prepared
with four different percentage of the filler weight as (100 wt% epoxy + 0 wt% SCBF), (100 wt% epoxy + 6 wt%
SCBF), (100 wt% epoxy + 12 wt% SCBF), and (100 wt% epoxy + 18 wt% SCBF). The low temperature curing
epoxy resin (AW 106) chemically belongs to the ‘epoxide’ family and corresponding hardener (HV 953U) selected
to fabricate the sample. The hand lay-up method used to fabricate the polymer composite sheet, and as per ASTM
standard sample be cut and mechanical behaviour (Tensile and Flexural) studied. The fabricated samples tested at
two different speeds respectively 2 mm/minute and 4 mm/minute. Also, the micro structural study of the composite
is carried out to exploring the filler scattering in the matrix material. Optimization of mechanical properties is also
executed using Taguchi method to find out the optimal combination of design constraints which maximizes the load
and stresses values.

Index Terms— Sugarcane bagasse fiber (SCBF), Epoxy, Polymer composite, Natural
filler/fiber.

I. INTRODUCTION

The biodegradable waste from agriculture based industries have received much consideration
due to they can use as potential raw material as key components of fully or partially green
composite material. Agricultural crop waste and residues like cereal straw, bagasse, corn stalk,
grass and cotton, etc. These are formed in millions of tonnes worldwide. It represents abundancy
of agro waste based fiber with low cost availability and freely available source of lingo-cellulosic
biomass. Only a minor quantity of agro waste used for animal feed or the household fuel rather
mostly are useless. But, major part of agro waste burn which creates the environmental pollution.
Application of biodegradable waste reinforced composite material can be used in field of various
automobile parts, kitchen accessories, interior design, decking materials, low and high strength
structural design in the field of aerospace and marine applications.

1.1.Definition of composite
The Composite material prepared by mixing two or more different elements in order to make the
resulting material having superior properties from its parental materials. There are two parts of
composite material, matrix and filler/fiber (reinforcing phase). We can reinforced in various
phase, in the form of fibers, sheets, or particles. It is surrounded in the other materials called the
matrix phase. Metal, ceramic, non-metal, and polymer material can be used as reinforcing
element and matrix material in development of composites.
Merits and Demerits of Composites:
 Environment friendly and non-toxic.
 Biodegradable, compostable.

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 User friendly and Cheaper.

 Non-abrasive.
 Light weight /small density.
 Income Source for rural/agricultural community.
 Heat and noise insulating property.
 Renewable and endless supply of raw materials.
 Free from health hazard (no skin irritations).
 Adequate specific strength.
 High and excellent toughness, thermal properties.

There are following disadvantages observed by the researchers as follows:

 Less compatibility with hydrophobic polymer matrix.

 Degradation of fiber due to storage for a long time period.
 Moisture absorptivity.
 Tendency to form aggregates during processing.
 Relatively low thermal stability and less resistance to moisture.
 Hygroscopicity.

1.3 Fabrication of Composite:

In fabrication of the sample hand lay-up method is used for tensile and flexural analysis. All
steps of fabrication process done in vacuum chamber. The funnel was connected to the mould
using a pipe. Epoxy resin, which comes in two components resin and hardener, were taken in
two separate cups. Appropriate quantity of filler (0%, 6%, 12%, 18%) was added in the cup,
contain resin and mixed using the mixing hardware available in the machine a low speed is
selected to avoid spillage. The machine was closed and vacuum applied. The hardener was the
pour from the cup A of the machine into cup B using the handle provided. The two were mixed
thoroughly in vacuum. Since the mixture becomes viscous hence the speed of the mixture is
increased appropriately. The mixed composite was pour into the mould under vacuum through
the funnel and the connecting tube. The mould contain the composite was kept in the vacuum
chamber and the vacuum was released slowly using the release knob. After 24-48 hours’
composite sheet fully cured and ready to fabricate samples as per ASTM standards.

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Fig.1. Specimen for testing.

1.4 Experimental design on the basis of Taguchi method
In this section, experimental design on the basis of Taguchi method explained thoroughly.
Design of experiment is a great investigation tool, used in modeling and investigating the
inspiration of control factors on performance outcome. The selection of the control factors has
major role in the design of experiment. Consequently, a lot of factors are involved, so that non-
significant variables can be acknowledged at the original opportunity. The selection of a suitable
orthogonal array for experiments, all degrees of freedom have to be calculated. The degrees of
freedom (DOF) are defined as the number of comparisons from the process parameters that
require to the determine which level is good and precisely how much better it is. In this study,
mechanical behavior of composite material is investigated under various operating
circumstances. In this work, considering two parameters, viz., speed and filler content which
having two control factors and four levels respectively as listed in Table 1 on the basis of the
Taguchi’s L8 orthogonal arrays. The influences of these two parameters are studied using this L8
array and tests are accompanied as per the experimental design described in Table 2 at room
temperature. The experimental observations are further transformed into signal to noise (S/N)
ratios. The S/N ratios for maximum load and stress values can be articulated as “higher the
better” representative, which is considered as logarithmic conversion of loss function as shown
in below.
Table.1 Levels of variables (control factors) used in experiment.
Levels
Control factors
1 2 3 4 Units

Filler content
0 6 12 18 wt.%

2 2 2 2
mm/min
Speed 4 4 4 4

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Table.2 Experimental design (L8 orthogonal array) with output and S/N ratio.

Test Filler Speed Load S/N Tensile S/N Flexural S/N ratio
run content (mm/min) (N) ratio for stress ratio for stress for
(wt. %) load (MPa) tensile (MPa) flexural
(dB) stress stress
(dB) (dB)
1 0 2 1958.54 65.8386 18.220 25.2110 29.32 29.3433
2 0 4 2464.27 67.8338 19.850 25.9552 34.43 30.7387
3 6 2 1989.46 65.9747 17.690 24.9546 28.43 29.0755
4 6 4 2602.22 68.3069 19.810 25.9377 34.02 30.3755
5 12 2 2709.59 68.6581 19.985 26.0141 36.62 31.2744
6 12 4 2117.72 66.5174 22.085 26.8819 28.78 29.1818
7 18 2 3245.91 70.2267 20.804 26.3629 34.72 30.5578
8 18 4 2954.92 69.4109 21.320 26.5757 35.89 31.0995

1.5 Experimental details

1.5.1 Tensile test
The Tensile test was carried out on the basis of ASTM D 3039 M-14 standard, using Universal
testing machine having grip capacity of 100 kN. The testing was performed at surrounding
temperature of 240C and relative humidity of 53%. Four different percent filler weight specimen
(as 0%, 6%, 12% and 18%) were tested at two different speeds of 2 mm/min. and 4mm/min. The
standard specimen was mounted by its ends into the holding grips of the testing equipment’s.
Dimension of a specimen is 125 X 25 X 5 with gauge length 60 mm, were tested at two different
speeds of 2 mm/min and 4 mm/min.

Fig.2 Experimental set up for tensile test

1.5.2 Flexural test

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The 3-point Flexural test of composite are carried out using Universal testing machine as per
ASTM D 790-03 at 240C and 53% Relative Humidity. The specimen of each filler contains were
testing at two crosshead speeds of 2mm/min and 4mm/min. The sample of rectangular cross
section rests on two supports and is loaded by means of a loading, nose midway between the
anchors. The loading nose and anchors have cylindrical surface. The standard specimen was
mounted by its ends into the holding grips of the testing instruments. The dimensions of
specimen are 125X25X5 with span length of 60 mm. The loading nose and anchors have
cylindrical surface. The flexural modulus is calculated from the slope of the initial portion of the
load deflection curve.
1.5.3 Optimization techniques
The optimization techniques are used to maximize and minimize the outcome of various kind of
problem in the engineering design endeavors. There are two distinct types of optimization
approaches used today. First one, algorithms which are deterministic and having specific rules
with different solution. Secondly, there are methods which are stochastic in nature contain
probabilistic transition rules.
Various optimization methodologies and algorithms ranging from the elementary numerical
inspect approaches to become more organized methodologies. By employing non-traditional
methods for the optimization of process parameters in case of composites can be used. Usually,
mathematical programming procedures like linear programming, method of feasible direction,
dynamic programming and geometric programming methods of optimization do not fare well
over the broad variety of the problem areas. Furthermore, traditional performances may not be
robust. Considering with the drawbacks of traditional optimization procedures, attempts to
optimize the design the constraints using Taguchi method. The evolutionary optimization
methods, multi criteria decision making, fuzzy based method, hybrid algorithm and artificial
intelligence techniques are used.
In Taguchi technique used to minimize minimum required number of the tests and it can explore
more information precisely and efficiently compared with the other methodology. Besides, this
will represent much better consistency and reproducibility of the results since it used in the both
set of standard orthogonal array, which can be used for the many other experimental situations,
and a standard method for the analysis of the outcome. Taguchi recommends the usage of the
loss function to estimate the quality characteristics.
1.5.4 Taguchi method
Dr. Genichi Taguchi was a Japanese quality management consultant. He developed and
promoted philosophy and methodology for the uninterrupted quality enhancement in products
and processes. According to his philosophy say the statistical design of experiments (SDOE or
DOE) can be helpful in industrial engineer designs and manufacturing of the products, that
having both of high quality as well as low cost. This approach was mainly concentrated with
eliminating the causes contains poor quality and factors contain potential impact on development
of product performance to variation effectively.
Taguchi promotes the procedure of orthogonal array designs to allocate with the factors selected
for the experiment. The greatest commonly used orthogonal array designs are L8 (i.e. eight
experimental trials), L16, L9, L18, and L27. The power of Taguchi method integrates the

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statistical approaches into the engineering process [2]. The process of performing a Taguchi
experiment follows a number of distinct steps:
Step1: Problem Formulation
Step 2: Identify Output and Input parameter that affect outcome of the problem.
Step 3: Identify the control factors, noise factors and signal factors (if any). The Control factors
are those, which can control under regular making conditions. The noise factors are those, which
are either too difficult or too expensive to control under usual making conditions. The signal
factors are those which affect mean performance of process.
Step 4: The selection of factor levels, possible interactions with the degrees of freedom related
with each factor and the interaction effects.
Step 5: Design an appropriate orthogonal array (OA).
Step 6: Preparation of experiment.
Step 7: Run the experiment having appropriate data collection.
Step 8: Statistical analysis with interpretation of the experimental results.
Step 9: Undertaking a confirmatory run of experiment.
The selection of an appropriate orthogonal array (OA) design is critical for the success of an
experiment. Which depends on the total degrees of freedom required to study the main and
interaction effects with the objective of experiment, resources, and budget (Cost) available and
time constraints. The orthogonal arrays allow first to compute the main and interaction
belongings via a smallest number of experimental trials. The term ‘‘Degrees of freedom’’
denotes the number of fair and independent comparisons that can be made from a set of
observations. In the perspective of SDOE, the number of degrees of freedom having one less
than number of levels related with factors. In other words, the number of degrees of freedom
(DOF) related with a factor at p-levels is (p-1). The number of degree of freedom (DOF) related
with an interaction of the product having the number of degrees of freedom linked with each
main effect involved in interaction. It is essential to notice that the number of experimental trials
must be larger than the entire degrees of freedom essential for studying the effects. The standards
orthogonal arrays (OA) for factors with two levels are L4, L8, L16, L32 and so on. Here the
symbolization ‘‘L’’ suggests that the information based on the Latin square procedure of the
factors. A Latin square procedure is a square matrix arrangement of factors with separate factor
effects. Here the numbers 4, 8, 12, 16, etc. represent the number of experimental trials.
In Taguchi’s design, the elementary objective is to identify the circumstances which enhance
process/product performance. In arriving at optimum set of the surroundings, Taguchi supports
the use of signal to noise ratio (SNR) the essential to maximize the performance of system or
product by minimizing the effect of noise with maximizing the mean performance. The SNR
treated as a response (output) of experiment. It is a measure of deviation when uncontrolled noise
factors were present in system. Taguchi has established and defined over 60 different SNRs for
the engineering applications of constraint design. In this study, as the objective is to maximize

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the mechanical properties. So, SNR associated to larger-the-better (LTB) quality characteristics
be selected.
Researchers done a lot of research on natural fiber reinforced polymer composites but SCB dust
particle has never been used in fabrication and application of epoxy based composite at low cost.
There is definite scope on study of mechanical behavior under different testing conditions of
SCB dust reinforced polymer composite. Cost and quality control of natural filler reinforced
composite is the major stone to use as alternative material by product designer and
manufacturers. Besides all these, the main motive is to fabricate a economic natural fiber based
composite material for commercial usage.

1.6 Experimental results

1.6.1 Tensile test result

The tensile tests are taken out using four different percentage of the filler weight having samples
at two different speeds. For each percentage of filler wt., six specimens are tested to attain the
repeatability in results. The variations of load with different percentage of the filler weight
shown in Fig.2. In this case, load attain maximum at 18 percentage of filler weight and speed
having 4 mm/min. But, tensile stress maximum at 12 percentage of filler weight contains
samples as shown in Fig. 3 at crosshead speed 4 mm/min. The tensile strain shown in Fig.3,
maximum at 18 percentage of filler particle with 4 mm/min. speed. From the consequences, it
can be concluded that as the percentage of filler wt. increases, load, tensile stress and strain value
increases and becomes maximum at 12 percentage filler content by weight and then these
properties decreases and becomes minimum at 18 percentage filler weight having tested samples.
The highest and smallest values of load with speed of 2 mm/min are found at 18 percentage and
0 percentage of filler weight respectively. Their respective values are 3245.91 N and 1958.54 N.
The highest and lowest values of tensile stresses with speed of 2 mm/min are 20.80MPa and
17.690 MPa at 12 percentage and 6 percentage of filler weight respectively. The maximum and
minimum tensile strain values are 14.58 and 4.57 respectively at 18 percentage and 0 percentage
of filler weight with speed of 2 mm/min respectively. The maximum value of the stress is found
at higher percentage of filler with lower speed. This is due to the fact that the fillers get time to
reorient themselves and results in higher value of the stress whereas in case of higher speed the
maximum value of stress is reached at a lower percentage of filler.

Fig.2. Load Vs Filler Percentage

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Fig.3. Tensile Stress Vs Filler Percentage

Fig.4.Tensile Stress Vs. Filler % and Speed

1.6.2 Flexural test results

The flexural test is carried out at four percentages of filler weight samples at two separate
speeds. For each percentage of the filler weight, four samples are tested to attain the
repeatability of results. The variation of flexural stress, and strain vs. filler content at different
speed are shown in Fig. 4. From the outcomes, it is concluded that as the filler weight
percentage increases, flexural stress and strain value increases and becomes maximum at 18
percentage of filler weight and minimum at 0 percentage of filler weight. The highest and
lowest values of flexural stress are 36.62 MPa and 28.43 MPa respectively for 12 percentages
and 6 percentage of filler weight with 2 mm/min speed. The maximum and minimum flexural
strain values are 14.58 and 4.57 respectively for 18 percent and 0 percentage of filler weight
with 2 mm/min speed. As discussed in the case of tensile properties regarding the maximum
stresses and its relationship with speed of testing, the same is also true for the flexural
properties.
At high percentage of the filler it is observed due to the agglomeration, drop in tensile and
flexural behaviours of the composites occurs of the filler molecules around the matrix which
prevents the proper curing of the composite and the same may be observed in the SEM (scanning
electron microscope) images. The SEM images are carried out for each percentage of filler
weight specimens and are shown in Fig.A-D In the Fig. A, particles seen are due to cutting of the
zero percentage of filler weight sample. The filler particles look scattered in six percentage of
filler weight sample as shown in Fig. B. For twelve percentage of filler weight, specimen filler
particles are started forming clusters and mechanical properties are at the highest value as shown

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in Fig. C. For higher filler weight percent of the clusters started overcoming the resin resulting
segregation and hardener resulting in imperfect curing of composite as shown in Fig.D.

Fig.(A). At 0% Filler Fig.(B) At 6% Filler

Fig.(C) At 12% Filler Fig.(D) At 18% Filler

1.7. Conclusion-
Experimental results support the successful
fabrication of sugar cane bagasse dust reinforced
epoxy based composites is possible and
possesses good filler characteristics as it
improves the tensile and flexural properties of
the polymeric resin. The maximum load, tensile
stress and strain, and flexural stress and strain
values are found to be maximum and minimum
at the filler wt. of 18 percent and 0 percent
respectively with speed of 2 mm/min. But, the
tensile and flexural modulus values are observed
to be maximum and minimum at 12 percent filler wt. with speed of 4 mm/min and at 0 percent
filler wt. with speed of 2 mm/min respectively. The best mechanical properties are observed for
18 percent filler wt. and speed of 2 mm/min and 4 mm/min speed.
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